Most long-time macOS users will be aware of the Application Switcher. It's invoked using the Command+Tab keyboard shortcut, and lists all of the apps currently running on your Mac, enabling you to quickly switch between them.
When you hold Command and press Tab, the Application Switcher overlay appears above all other open windows on your desktop, and remains visible until you release the Command key. Letting go switches you to the last active app, prior to the one you were just using.
Repeatedly tapping Tab with the Command key held down cycles you through the list of apps in the Application Switcher from left to right, while releasing Command takes you to the selected app. You can also press the right and left arrow keys to move the selection box forwards and backwards. A two-finger drag on a trackpad does the same thing, or you can use your mouse cursor to highlight an app in the list and then click to select it.
Bring back a minimized app
While the Application Switcher allows you to cycle through open apps, selecting an app with minimized windows doesn't automatically restore those windows. To do that, activate the Application Switcher and navigate through the row of icons. With the desired app highlighted, press and hold the Option key, then release the Command key. This action will restore the minimized window of the app in question.
Close and hide apps via the Application Switcher
Pressing the H key in the Application Switcher hides all the windows of the selected app (pressing the H key again reveals them). It's a neat way to quickly clear a space on a desktop cluttered with windows. This method streamlines window management by avoiding minimization. By invoking the Application Switcher again you can switch back to the hidden app.
Lastly, highlighting an icon in the Application Switcher and tapping Q has to be one of the fastest ways to individually quit open Mac apps.
In macOS, a Text Clipping is a selection of text that you've dragged from an application to another location on your Mac, where it becomes a unique kind of standalone file. The relatively little-known feature has been around since at least Mac OS 9, and it offers a convenient way to save out pieces of text from pretty much anywhere for later use in another app or document.
To create a Text Clipping, simply highlight any piece of text, then hold left-click and drag it with your mouse to your Desktop or an open Finder window. This saves the highlighted text – including any rich text formatting – as a .textclipping file named after the first few words of text that you selected, but you can easily rename it to make it more identifiable.
To use the selected text in another file like a Pages document, drag the Text Clipping into the open document and the text will be automatically pasted wherever the cursor is located. You can paste the clipping in the same way into all sorts of open files and apps, including browser search engines, Mail compose windows, and more.
To quickly view the contents of a Text Clipping, simply double-click it to view the text in a dedicated window, and even highlight and copy (Command-C) just a snippet of the text from this window for pasting elsewhere.
Text clippings can speed up many repetitive tasks, making things like reusing email/letter templates and code snippets a cinch. Bear in mind that Text Clippings store content in a unique format that may not be compatible across all platforms or devices. So if you're sharing clippings, it's best to convert them into standard text formats to ensure they can be opened elsewhere.
In macOS Sequoia 15.2, Apple has introduced a new option that adds a weather report to your Mac's menu bar.
Mac users who update to macOS 15.2 (or later) can now add a handy weather icon to the menu bar, showing the current temperature alongside a visual indicator of the conditions — such as a sun for sunny skies or a cloud for overcast weather.
Clicking the icon provides a detailed hourly forecast, upcoming temperatures, and weather updates for saved locations. It also offers quick access to the full Weather app with just a click.
You can enable this feature on your Mac by following these steps:
• Click the Apple () symbol in the menu bar and select System Settings...
• Navigate to Control Center using the sidebar
• Locate the "Menu Bar Only" section near the bottom
• Alongside Weather, click the chevrons and select Show in Menu Bar
One of the neat things about using a Mac is that macOS features various levels of interaction and customization, but many of us only ever scratch the surface of what's possible. If you regularly perform certain actions on your Mac, often there's another way of doing it that's easier, only it's not so obvious unless someone points it out to you.
With that in mind, here are few quick macOS tips that once you start using should make the time you spend on your Mac a more effortless experience. The following assumes you're running macOS Sonoma or later, but many of these tips should work on earlier versions of Apple's Mac operating system.
Access more Preview file format options
When you come to save or export a file in Preview, Option-click the Format dropdown to get access to several additional file types.
Float notes over app windows
In the Notes app in macOS, it's possible to float individual notes over other windows so that they stay visible regardless of which application is active. This makes for a convenient way to reference an existing note while writing an essay or report, for example. It also comes in useful if you want to take notes when researching something online.
To float a note in the Notes app, double-click the note to open it in a separate window, then select Window -> Keep on Top from the menu bar. The note will now remain above other open application windows, even if you switch between apps using Stage Manager. Just remember that your floating notes can't share the same screen as another app that's in fullscreen mode.
Add app, file or folder shortcuts to Finder's toolbar
Simply begin to drag the item within the Finder window, then hold down the Command (⌘) key and drop it onto an available space in the toolbar.
Quickly access specific system settings
If your Mac's keyboard has icons printed on some of the functions keys, you can press them to perform special features. For example, pressing the F11/12 keys with speaker icons adjusts the volume. If you hold down Option when you press one of these keys, the specific preferences in System Settings that are associated with the feature will open instantly. Option-F11/12 opens the Sound pane, for instance.
Tired of Typing? Dictate
macOS supports simultaneous use of keyboard input and Dictation, without any disruption in your flow of thought. In other words, you can keep typing after hitting the Dictation shortcut (assignable in System Settings... > Keyboard). So whenever your fingers need a rest, you can complete the sentence you were just typing by saying it out loud.
Automatically close Safari tabs
macOS can close Safari's browser tabs on your behalf, based on when you last viewed them. Select Safari -> Settings... in the menu bar, then click the Tabs section. Next to "Automatically close tabs" you'll find options to make the browser auto-close tabs that have not been viewed After One Day, After One Week, or After One Month.
Mail attachment downloads in Finder
In macOS Sonoma or, when you download an email attachment from Mail and view it in Finder, the file includes a new mail symbol next to it to let you know it's an email attachment. If you right-click the attachment, there's even a "Reply to [name of sender]" option in the contextual menu that when selected will open the Mail compose window, ready for you to type up your reply message.
On a Mac that has a top row of function keys, Apple includes volume and brightness controls that can be used to make adjustments in stepwise increments. However, there may be times when you want to make more fine grained adjustments to these settings than the default increments allow.
Whenever you tap the volume or brightness controls on your keyboard, you'll see an indicator appear on your Mac's screen with 16 fixed increments separated by lines. With the help of a keyboard modifier, it's actually possible to make more nuanced quarter-step changes to sound volume and screen brightness using a total of 64 increments.
Before you press the volume or brightness controls, hold down the Option and Shift keys together on your keyboard. Now go ahead and make your adjustments, and you should see the onscreen indicator move forwards and backwards in smaller increments (four over each segment). Holding down just the Option key will take you to the Sound or Displays settings.
It's a simple tip, but it's really useful for when just tapping the control on its own feels like too much of a jump, and you'd prefer more accurate control over.
